And it's especially difficult to even try to absorb the larger meaning of 3,000 lost lives, of mostly very young soldiers, when Mr. Bush can't bring himself to dispell speculation that he wants to increase the number of U.S. troops in Iraq, from a current level of 140,000, before he goes about bringing them home.
Rachel Corrie play nixed in Toronto
Cleveland Jewish News, OH -
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(JTA) - A Toronto-based theater removed from its upcoming season a controversial play about a pro-Palestinian activist's death.
Martin Bragg, artistic producer for the Canadian Stage Company or CanStage, said “My Name Is Rachel Corrie” was dropped from consideration because it was dramatically weak, not because of its political content. Bragg said he reached the decision after seeing a production of the play in New York that failed to engage the audience.
An echo of Nicola's fears north of the border occurred within the last couple of months in the Canadian Jewish News. Upon hearing of the possible staging in Toronto of My Name is Rachel Corrie, Alicia Richler, associate director of communications for the Canada-Israel Committee, according to CJC, "said that although everyone in Canada has the right to free speech, the timing of the news is poor, since an Israeli man was recently killed when a rocket launched from the northern Gaza Strip hit a factory in Sderot."
From the Toronto Star, Dec. 24: "The alternate version being told among CanStage insiders: Members of Bragg's board were alarmed by negative response from influential supporters of the theatre, especially in Toronto's Jewish community, who were canvassed for their opinion. Many were dismayed and openly critical when confronted with the prospect of the city's flagship not-for-profit theatre producing a play that could be construed as anti-Semitic propaganda, especially during a frightening period when Israel's existence is threatened by Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas."
Toronto -- News of CanStage's cancellation of its plans to stage a controversial play about a 23-year-old American protester who was crushed by an Israeli Defence Force bulldozer made the New York Times this week. No wonder: That city has had similar battles over My Name is Rachel Corrie, for its perceived anti-Israeli content.
The play, created by actor-director Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner from the diaries and e-mails of the young Palestinian-rights activist, won a best new play prize in this year's Theatregoers' Choice Awards in London. Some British reviewers reported that they found the play revealed Corrie to be obnoxious and foolish, but some North Americans who have seen the play (and some who haven't seen it) say they sense anti-Semitic bias in the script.
A planned production at the New York Theatre Workshop was postponed; the play eventually found an off-Broadway home at the Minetta Lane Theater. The New York production's problems were echoed in Toronto: The non-profit (and currently money-losing) CanStage company was told by at least two prominent benefactors that they would take it badly if CanStage did a play that could stir up feelings against Jews. Although artistic producer Martin Bragg publicly confessed that he'd been "reduced to tears" by the script, and planned to put Rachel Corrie into his 2007-8 season, he said he lost interest after seeing it at Minetta Lane.
I guess Martin Bragg was only crying crocodile tears.Toronto's Canadian Stage Company has decided not to stage My Name is Rachel Corrie, the controversial play about an American peace activist killed by an Israeli bulldozer.
It was a decision based on the play's merits, rather than the political controversy that dogs it, CanStage artistic producer Martin Bragg said in an interview with CBC.ca.
"It was an artistic decision," said Bragg, who saw the play in New York. "It just didn't work on stage."
It didn't work on stage, eh. Yep I call that real artistic integrity.
Its my excuse and mes excuses.
The spectacle of Saddam Hussein's execution, shown in pornographic detail to the whole world, was deeply shocking to those of us who respect propriety and human dignity. The vengeful Shiite mob that was allowed to taunt the man's last moments, and the vicious executioners who released the trapdoor while he was saying his prayers, turned this scene of so-called Iraqi justice into a public lynching.
One does not have to be any kind of Saddam sympathiser to be horrified that he should have been executed — and, so obscenely, on the dawn of Islam's holy feast of Eid al-Adha, which flagrantly defies religious practice and was an affront to the Islamic world.
What was the executioners' hurry? Why was Saddam condemned for one of his lesser crimes, ignoring the far larger ones for which many of his victims had sought retribution? In their unseemly haste to kill him, the judges ended up looking mean-minded, bloodthirsty and vengeful, while Saddam retained a dignity to the end that drew the reluctant admiration of many of his enemies.
It was always clear that Saddam's fate was sealed from the moment US forces "got 'im", in Paul Bremer's tasteless phrase. He was to be used as a trophy of a mindless and catastrophic war, to redeem America's dented image. But it was also essential to stop him revealing secrets about the West's past enthusiasm in supporting and arming his regime. Hence he was tried on the relatively minor charge of killing 148 people in the village of Dujail, after a plot to assassinate him. Far better to put him away safely for that rather than risk his exposing Western hypocrisy, treachery and double-dealing.
What other surprises the trial of Hussein could have revealed is a major question.
For example, the media often write that on July 25, 1990, the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, April Glaspie 
, was summoned to the dictator's office for "comprehensive political discussions" before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on August 2. Glaspie allegedly told Hussein: "We have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait."
[Editor's Note: Glaspie was reported to have said in part, "We have no opinion on Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait. ... James Baker has directed our official spokesmen to emphasize this instruction. We hope you can solve this problem using any suitable methods ... All that we hope is that these issues are solved quickly].
But the "border disagreement" turned out into a full-scale aggression. For Saddam, this was the beginning of the end. In Washington, he became public enemy number one when in fact before the Kuwait campaign American-Iraqi relations seemed to be improving.
Several weeks before the war, a delegation of U.S. senators visited Baghdad to assure the Iraqi authorities of Washington's benevolence. Let us point out that this visit took place after the Dujail massacre and the use of chemical weapons against Kurds in Anfal. Or didn't Washington know about that?
Was Saddam The Scapegoat Or The 'Sacrificed Sheep' Of The Bush Administration? By Ali Al-Hail
Saddam's execution is inhuman By Burhanuddin Qasmi
Saddam's execution repudiated all over the world By the Workers' Party of Belgium
When Justice Becomes Personal Revenge By Syed B. Soharwardy
And this editorial was from Lebanon just prior to Saddams lynching.
The Truth Is Out There......2007 begins with a flurry of UFO reports. "In the firm belief that the American public deserves a better explanation than that (swamp gas) thus far given by the Air Force, I strongly recommend that there be a committee investigation of the UFO phenomena. I think we owe it to the people to establish credibility regarding UFOs, and to produce the greatest possible enlightenment of the subject."- President Gerald Ford (during his years as a US Congressman). fnord
Wages
So Big Blue Wave invited me to join her new Blog Aggregator, and while we clash over our opinions it is a good idea. Not unlike the Canadian Blog Exchange, where she posted this. And heck being a prairie boy I like to spread my opinion around like fertilizer.
